by Rachel Dworkin, archivist
June 22nd marked the 45th anniversary of
the Flood of 1972. Caused by heavy rains courtest of Hurricane Agnes, the flood of June 22-23, 1972 was the worst disaster in the recorded history of Chemung County. It caused an estimated $291.2 million worth of propety damage and forced approximately 15,000 Elmirans from their homes. The waters had barely receded before the city was hit by a second flood, this one of people.
 |
| Downtown Elmira at the height of the flood, June 23, 1972 |
Some of the visitors where here to help. Trucks
from Utica came down with bottles of clean, pasteurized water courtesy of that
city’s breweries. Over 1,000 Red Cross workers helped to coordinate supplies for the displaced
and assist with the clean-up. Volunteers with Operation Rebuild
made repairs to people’s homes. On June 30, Vice-President Spiro Agnew toured the
Twin Tiers to survey the damage and promise federal assistance. Elmira could
not have recovered as quickly as it did without the invaluable help all of them provided.
 |
| Vice-President Spiro Agnew's visit, June 30, 1972. He's from the government and he's here to help. |
Other visitors were less benign. Looting was a
huge problem. The flood had left many homes and businesses unguarded. Within
four days of the flood, 13 people were arrested for looting, charged with
stealing everything from electronics from stores to personal items from
people’s homes and even the rug from Silver Dollar Cleaners. The National Guard
was called in to protect the downtown from further theft. They formed a perimeter
around the area, only letting in store owners who had a special pass to be
there. With no authority to arrest people, or even a place to put them if they
did, the Guard resorted to simply confiscating stolen merchandise and escorting
looters outside the protected zone.
 |
| National Guard on Water Street |
 |
| Elmira Mayor Richard Loll talks with Guardsmen on Water Street. |
|
|
|
 |
| Guardsmen on Lake Street Bridge. As one of Elmira's two surviving bridges, Lake Street was used for emergency and official vehicles only. All civilian traffic had to use the Madison Avenue Bridge. |
Sight-seers and disaster tourists also posed a
problem. Two of the city’s four bridges were down and, with portions of the
downtown being blocked by the National Guard, traffic was a nightmare. The
influx of outsiders coming to take pictures and gawk at the devastation only
made it that much worse. They also caused problems driving through residential
areas. The flood had left the roads coated in mud and, as it dried, every car
which drove by kicked up clouds of dust. Some homeowners put up roadblocks on
their streets to keep out the tourists so they could salvage their homes in
peace.
 |
| Sign at the corner of West Water Street and Demerest Parkway. |
 |
| Sign at the corner of West Water Street and Sunnyside Drive. |
|
|
I remember the Flood of 72 I was only in 4th grade @ Hanlon Elementary in Odessa N.Y. our family lived in Odessa at that time, my Dad had just opened a used car dealership on Lake St. in Elmira when the flood occurred, we had permission from the authorities to move all of my Dad's used cars up to where we lived in Odessa to avoid being flooded and moved as much as we could of essential stuff too, news was hard to come by because of the flooding tv/radio was either down or hard to get but we survived and Thankfully the Government and others stepped in as your article pointed out, Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteI was living in Maryland at the time and my father was in the hospital (can't remember if it was Arnot or St Joe's) but I talked to him every day. The hospital had phone service but my mother on Maple Avenue did not. She stayed on the Southside to take care of my grandparents. I appreciated the way my father's friends visited him so faithfully. My parent's home had city water but also a well. She was hosing off items from our church in her driveway and put up a sign saying she was using well water.
ReplyDeleteI was 12 at the time and I remember the chaos of it all and the national guard on the street corners
ReplyDeleteIn June 1972 hurricane wreaked havoc on the town of Elmira, N.Y. That hurricane flooded the town where the water level was reported to be as high as the street lamps. Reports were that he Chemung River crested at a staggering 22.5 feet above normal levels, completely overtopping the city’s floodwalls and leaving the streets of Elmira under up to 12 to 15 feet of toxic, mud-filled water.
ReplyDeleteN.Y. Telephone crews in the Bronx (and all over the state) were mobilized and sent to Elmira. There were eight of us from the Dyre ave. garage and the Tratman ave garage in the Bronx. Our foreman was from the Tratman ave. garage. We left NY three days after the storm. and got to Elmira that night. As we drove into Elmira the scene was worse than anything I had seen in Viet Nam. Everything was a total wreck. We did not see this but several houses floated off of their foundations down the river. One house came off it's foundation, flowed down the river and hit the Madison Avenue Bridge breaking it. We still used that bridge even though it was broken The crack was clearly visible as we crossed.
The Central Office had been under water and was totally out of service. There was no dial tone to work with. Our mission was to go house to house, as the Central Office (C.O.) Techs rebuilt the C.O., and clear up wiring faults so that when dial tone was restored these people would be, automatically, in service. We started on the south edge (I believe) of the affected area along the river and worked our way up to higher ground. By the time dial tone was restored (two weeks later) most of that area was back in service.
We worked house to house. Every house had mud two feet high on the first floor. The basements (where most of our work was) was much worse. The houses were vacant at that time. After working in that mess for those weeks; when dial tone arrived we started getting calls that involved phones on the upper floors. It was fascinating to see the difference between what we've been working in and what had been left untouched. These were beautiful traditional homes. The second floor was an entirely different world.
I remember that two weeks after we got there. our team was briefing on the corner of one of the streets and behind us (about 20 feet away) was a house that would, obviously, be condemned. It was in that bad shape after the storm. The river was in it's back yard. I could hear a very faint whining sound. I couldn't make out what it was but decided to investigate. I left my guys on the corner and followed the sound to that house. There was much debris to remove just to get through the door. Under further debris, once I entered, I found a very frail elderly man who barely had the strength to cry for help. I picked him up and carried him outside to my guys who ran to and called over an ambulance that was just a few hundred feet away from us. He had been buried under that rubble for two weeks. Thank God he survived.
I will never forget my time in Elmira, N.Y. What a beautiful city. What beautiful people.